question on imprinting for AI

[Falcon911]

Last year I imprinted a couple of Peregrines for AI and I make every effort to not let one bird see the other - eating or otherwise. Is this neccesary?

The birds were raised separately but obviously recognise that they are a bird because sometimes they shout abuse to passing Kestrels etc.

What do other people do ?

Cheers
Andy

[Barbary Boy]

get rid of them and start again with parent reared? they did my head in? sooooo noisy, ok for some but not for me!

[Falcon911]

After breeding with parent reared for 20 odd years it was time for a change. I have three imprints and they are great fun! The female Peregrine was pretty bloomin' noisy for most of her first year but seems to be getting more sensible about things now and is a pleasure to own.
I am hoping of course that they will be productive - if not it will be a waste of all the effort put in so far and I'll be gutted........

I will keep you all posted!

Cheers
Andy

[MitchellBrad]

After breeding with parent reared for 20 odd years it was time for a change.
CheersAndy

Dumb question. Why? Chamber birds are no muss no fuss. Throw feed in and pull eyeases out. No semen donors needed. You don't interact with the birds. I quit the imprints a long time ago because it was too time consuming. No incubators are needed either.

[Falcon911]

I had a pair of birds together that were not copulating and giving loads of infertile eggs so got hold of a hat bird. Through the use of forced insemination I now enjoy some success from this female but find it pretty stressfull being there at the right time, capturing the bird up etc, etc.
I find interacting with the imprint interesting so the natural way to go then (it seemed!) was to imprint a female to inseminate without any stress.
Apart from being interesting I am hoping to be more 'in control' of the results rather than just leaving it to chance with a natural pair. Another benefit is that you can just go in and clean the birds out or even cope them with no stress at all. Yes they are time consuming but rewarding too.
It is only over the last few years that I have moved over more to Peregrines or hybrids of and have found it very difficult to find successful copulating males.......
From what I can gather, the majority of commercial breeders over here rely heavily on imprints for success.

Rgds
Andy

[SnapeDek]

I had a pair of birds together that were not copulating and giving loads of infertile eggs so got hold of a hat bird. Through the use of forced insemination I now enjoy some success from this female but find it pretty stressfull being there at the right time, capturing the bird up etc, etc.
I find interacting with the imprint interesting so the natural way to go then (it seemed!) was to imprint a female to inseminate without any stress.
Apart from being interesting I am hoping to be more 'in control' of the results rather than just leaving it to chance with a natural pair. Another benefit is that you can just go in and clean the birds out or even cope them with no stress at all. Yes they are time consuming but rewarding too.
It is only over the last few years that I have moved over more to Peregrines or hybrids of and have found it very difficult to find successful copulating males.......
From what I can gather, the majority of commercial breeders over here rely heavily on imprints for success.

Rgds
Andy never trust a bird with a egg

[MitchellBrad]

I understand all of the below. By a natural pair I mean birds that do it all and the hatch rate of fertile for me has been almost 100%. Everything that has gone wrong has been my doing here. I've tossed falcons in with tiercels and had eggs within 2 weeks. Your right in that you can't go in the chambers. Also I know a couple of commercial breeders in the US who don't own an incubator. Kirk Hohenburger told me he is 100% with several falcons.

Copulating tiercels aren't the problem, it's the falcons but most don't know that. Any half assed tiercel will hop a falcon if she wails and hoists her tail.

Brad

I had a pair of birds together that were not copulating and giving loads of infertile eggs so got hold of a hat bird. Through the use of forced insemination I now enjoy some success from this female but find it pretty stressfull being there at the right time, capturing the bird up etc, etc.
I find interacting with the imprint interesting so the natural way to go then (it seemed!) was to imprint a female to inseminate without any stress.
Apart from being interesting I am hoping to be more 'in control' of the results rather than just leaving it to chance with a natural pair. Another benefit is that you can just go in and clean the birds out or even cope them with no stress at all. Yes they are time consuming but rewarding too.
It is only over the last few years that I have moved over more to Peregrines or hybrids of and have found it very difficult to find successful copulating males.......
From what I can gather, the majority of commercial breeders over here rely heavily on imprints for success.

Rgds
Andy

[SnakeHuts]

Any half assed tiercel will hop a falcon if she wails and hoists her tail.

Brad

Thats it Brad apportion the blame to the female .......:)

[MitchellBrad]

Thats it Brad apportion the blame to the female .......:)

Of course. Males have taken a bad rap for years. In reality they will hop anything from a perch to a rock. All the falcon had to do was a little wailing but NOOOO. Frustrated males from falco to hominid it's universal:) :roll:

Let me make another thing clear. I've had my share of disasters with incubators and natural pairs. The problems have always been traced back to ME. Something I've done that created the disaster.
Brad

[Falcon911]

Anyway does anyone bother keeping their imprints out of sight of each other??

Cheers
Andy

[Paco]

I know people who has his female imprints in sight and others friends has separate with no visual contact.
Both has issue.so i doubt what is the better system.

[Paco]

And for Mitchellbrad

¿ What is for you, the secret for making a natural pair?

Thanks...

[MitchellBrad]

And for Mitchellbrad

¿ What is for you, the secret for making a natural pair?

Thanks...

It's very easy. Let the adults hatch and raise the eyeases. Pick your gamehawks and fly them hard for at least a season. Around Feb in their 3rd year put them together. Always take the falcon to the tiercel's chambers. Then sit back and wait. 100 % success so far with birds raised in this manner. It took me a long time to figure this out. Now I find a lot of people are doing it with excellent success.

I do have a couple of older breeders I hatched and put with the adults at 3 or 4 days. But the other method almost always guarantees success. There have been a few problems but I always traced them back to something I've done.

Brad

[MattSpar]

My own tiercel was raised in isolation from other birds for some time, but he now sees others frequently. He's just fine.